Conductor: Guillaume Bourgogne
Reading from Jasmine Rain by and featuring Shahd Wadi, a Palestinian poet, among other possibilities.
José Carlos Sousa: Mafish Mushkila (2026) – World Premiere (commissioned by SAEE)
Pedro Berardinelli: new work (2026) / World Premiere (jointly commissioned by the Viseu International Spring Music Festival and Miso Music Portugal)
Carlos Lopes: in Pulses (2026) / World Premiere (commissioned by Miso Music Portugal)
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (1941)
The Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, the resident ensemble of Miso Music Portugal, presents a musical journey in this programme that is fully in keeping with the “Insurgência” theme of the Música Viva Festival. Bringing together three world premieres by Portuguese composers Carlos Lopes, Pedro Berardinelli and José Carlos Sousa – works commissioned by the ensemble itself and by Miso Music Portugal – the programme affirms contemporary creation as a space for risk-taking, reflection and artistic expression.
These new works engage in a dialogue with one of the most iconic compositions of the 20th century, Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, composed and premiered in 1941 at the Görlitz prisoner-of-war camp. Born out of an extreme context of violence and deprivation, this work stands as a powerful testament to music’s capacity to affirm human dignity and transcendence even in the most adverse circumstances.
By bringing the urgency of contemporary creation into dialogue with this seminal work, the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble constructs a programme that understands music as an act of resistance, consciousness and freedom. Performed by musicians of recognised artistic excellence and deep commitment to the music of our time, this concert offers an intense listening experience, where creation asserts itself as a space for poetic and ethical insurgency — an act of critical imagination in the face of the tensions and challenges of the present.
The Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble is an innovative ensemble dedicated to contemporary music within the European new music scene. Its core structure is based on a permanent combination of 5 to 8 acoustic instruments (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion and voice) and electronics, drawing on the technical expertise of Miso Studio.
The repertoire of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble encompasses some of the most important works for ensembles of 5 to 8 instruments from the 20th and 21st centuries. One of the central features of this project is the regular commissioning of new works, thereby promoting the strong and dynamic development of contemporary chamber music with electronics, with a special focus on Portuguese composition. In this vein, it has released six albums to date featuring works by Portuguese composers.
Comprising a generation of exceptional musicians, each with their own solo careers, the ensemble has, since its debut in September 2007, achieved a high artistic standard, establishing itself as a leading ensemble in Portugal and abroad in the field of mixed-voice music. In addition to its concert activities in Portugal, it has also performed in Germany, Canada, South Korea, Spain, France, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. At the same time, Sond’Ar-te has developed musical theatre and multimedia projects, educational activities such as the Forum for Young Composers, and audience development initiatives through programmes specially designed for young people.
Guillaume Bourgogne is the artistic and musical director of Ensemble Op.Cit (Lyon, France) and the Ensemble contemporain de la HEMU (Lausanne, Switzerland), as well as the musical director of Ensemble Cairn (Paris, France) and principal guest conductor of Camerata Aberta (São Paulo, Brazil) between 2010 and 2018. He studied orchestral conducting with János Fürst at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, where he won several first prizes.
He has appeared as a guest conductor with ensembles and orchestras such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lille, L’Itinéraire, Contrechamps, Court-Circuit, 2e2m and the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble. In 2022, he conducted the premiere of L’Annonce faite à Marie, an opera by Philippe Leroux. He has also conducted the premieres of numerous works by composers such as Jérôme Combier, Noriko Baba, Tristan Murail, Gérard Pesson, Agata Zubel, Raphaël Cendo, Chris Paul Harman, Luis Naón and Miguel Azguime.
Guillaume Bourgogne was an Assistant Professor and later an Associate Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University between 2013 and 2022 (Montreal, Quebec), before being appointed Associate Professor at the Haute école de musique Vaud Valais Fribourg (Lausanne), where he currently teaches.
His collaborations have taken him to some of the most prestigious international festivals, and his discography has received numerous awards: Diapason d’or, Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros, Coup de cœur de l’Académie Charles Cros, Prix de la critique Bravo! and Disque d’or.
